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Famed neurologist Oliver Sacks, author of Awakenings, dead at 82

By Amy R. Connolly
Oliver Sacks, 82, died Sunday. Photo by Dan Lurie/Flickr/CC
Oliver Sacks, 82, died Sunday. Photo by Dan Lurie/Flickr/CC

NEW YORK, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Oliver Sacks, a famed neurologist known for his work to uncover the deep recesses of the human brain and the acclaimed author of Awakenings, died Sunday of cancer.

Sacks, 82, a medical doctor and writer, achieved a level of popularity not seen in many scientists. More than a million copies of his books are in print in the United States, his work has been adapted for film and stage, and he received some 10,000 letters a year. His book Awakenings, which inspired an Oscar-nominated film of the same name starring Robin Williams, detailed his work with a group of patients he treated who woke up after spending years in a catatonic state.

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He was also the author many books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and The Island of the Colourblind, both which detailed his work with patients with unusual medical conditions.

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He announced in February in the New York Times an earlier melanoma in his eye spread to his liver and he was in the late stage of terminal cancer.

"I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude," he wrote. "I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers."

Born in London, Sacks was a professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, according to his website.

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